[meteorite-list] Magnetite/Glass Meteorite Balls

From: Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2007 02:11:19 -0500
Message-ID: <00cb01c7c51d$04340530$3d53e146_at_ATARIENGINE>

Hi, Bill, Pete, List

    The issue of classification only applies to
macro-sized objects, not dust. Certainly, any
number of scientists have worked on retrieving
micro-meteoroidal dust in various ways. NASA
used to fly a U2 with cosmic dust collectors
under the wings; the ocean sediments have been
cored for cosmic dust records. There was a
long dispute over the volume of infalling dust,
with estimates from millions of tons down to
a few thousand tons per year being calculated
(the smaller figures were right, it turns out, about
3,000 tons per year, or about 6 grams per km2
per year).

    And certainly "cosmic dust" has been analyzed
to a fair-thee-well for isotopes, but as a bulk
material. Once something gets down to micron
sizes (one cc of one-micron particles = one billion
objects), we cannot identify the origin of each
particle, hence classification is meaningless.
Brownlee (head of the Stardust Mission team)
is the top man in cosmic dust. Read the article
at the URL in my post:
http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20030813/Feature1.asp

    I didn't know about shingles having magnetic
particles, though. That means that "gutter dust"
is worthless. Now, if you found a little 0.5 gram
rock in your gutter that, when sliced, showed
a bleb of metal... That would be a different story!

    Nobody I know is that lucky!


Sterling K. Webb
-----------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill" <glixard at inbox.com>
To: "Pete Pete" <rsvp321 at hotmail.com>
Cc: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Friday, July 13, 2007 12:58 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Magnetite/Glass Meteorite Balls


This subject has been mentioned so many times. Is there a single classified
particle from this method of collection?

Bill



> -----Original Message-----
> From: rsvp321 at hotmail.com
> Sent: Fri, 13 Jul 2007 00:42:54 -0400
> To: sterling_k_webb at sbcglobal.net, clp at alumni.caltech.edu,
> meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Magnetite/Glass Meteorite Balls
>
> >>....somebody here on the list recounted
> their successful retrieval of micrometeoroidal dust from their
> gutters this way...
>
>
> Hi, all,
>
> I suggest you don't attempt to gather celestial dust near a building - a
> lot
> of asphalt shingles have granules with magnetic qualities.
> I attempted this recently, and collected what was obviously from my own
> rooftop.
>
> Cheers,
> Pete
>
> From: "Sterling K. Webb" <sterling_k_webb at sbcglobal.net>
> To: "Chris Peterson" <clp at alumni.caltech.edu>,"Meteorite List"
> <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Magnetite/Glass Meteorite Balls
> Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2007 22:52:22 -0500
>
> Hi, Chris, List,
>
> http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20030813/Feature1.asp
> (Scroll down past the Stardust Mission...)
>
> True, micron stuff from "shower" meteors takes
> a long time to drop, which is why it's falling all the time.
> The much larger, heavier, and vastly rarer low altitude
> meteor ablation product falls much more rapidly, but
> you have to have a meteor burn along overhead!
> The eBay stuff, collected from a mountain stream,
> is a cumulate record of 100's (1000's?) of years (depending
> on how fast the sand is flushed). Collected pond muck,
> or the goop in the bottom of your gutters, can be harvested
> of meteoritic dust by mixing it with clean water and stirring
> with a magnet.
> Years and years ago, somebody here on the list recounted
> their successful retrieval of micrometeoroidal dust from their
> gutters this way but I can't remember who it was. And another
> list member told of leaving a water collector out during "shower
> times" as a kid and collecting residue, but you're quite right --
> it couldn't have been contemporaneous dust!
>
>
> Sterling K. Webb
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Chris Peterson" <clp at alumni.caltech.edu>
> To: "Meteorite List" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
> Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2007 9:41 PM
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Magnetite/Glass Meteorite Balls
>
>
> > Meteoritic dust or cosmic dust: put a flat white
> > plastic pan or small "splash pool" of water out away
> > from the trees on the peak night of a meteor shower,
> > and in the morning you will be rewarded with a black
> > dust on the bottom of the pool...
>
> Have you actually done this? Because the sort of micron-scale dust
> produced by meteors has an atmospheric lifetime measured in months.
> While there's certainly meteor dust falling all the time, you won't find
> any in the morning from the previous night's shower.
>
> Chris
>
> *****************************************
> Chris L Peterson
> Cloudbait Observatory
> http://www.cloudbait.com
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Sterling K. Webb" <sterling_k_webb at sbcglobal.net>
> To: "Mike Groetz" <mpg444 at yahoo.com>; "Meteorite List"
> <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
> Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2007 8:23 PM
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Magnetite/Glass Meteorite Balls
>
>
> > Hi, Mike, List,
> >
> > The Seller believes this material to be "Jurassic"
> > in origin because he finds it in sand produced from
> > Jurassic strata, but while he's wrong about that, he
> > may be right about it being meteoritic!
> >
> > When a meteorite ablates in the atmosphere, the
> > majority of its mass is turned into a dust of tiny fused
> > droplets. Eventually, that meteoritic dust will fall to
> > earth; some will land on water, sink to the stream and
> > lake bottoms and become incorporated in the sand
> > (or mud).
> >
> > Meteoritic dust or cosmic dust: put a flat white
> > plastic pan or small "splash pool" of water out away
> > from the trees on the peak night of a meteor shower,
> > and in the morning you will be rewarded with a black
> > dust on the bottom of the pool, that could well be
> > interpreted as:
> > "Meteorite balls, glass balls, zircons, garnet, magnetite
> > and some other minerals... The balls are magnetite balls.
> > Somethimes with the white transparents glass balls you
> > can find some green balls that look like moldavite or
> > olivina fused samples..."
> >
> > Much more fun to collect your own than to
> > buy it on eBay, though.
> >
> >
> > Sterling K. Webb
>
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Received on Fri 13 Jul 2007 03:11:19 AM PDT